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ONE blogs – JOHN CALDER – THE LAST STRAW

The unfolding of the Murdoch saga brings surprise after surprise, and the whole evil empire shows signs of eventual collapse. How can a press mogul wield so much power that a supposedly democratic country like Great Britain, run by a three hundred year-old party system, can come to believe, at least as far as its leading politicians are concerned, that an election cannot be won without his support?

The last straw that broke the camel’s back, as revelation followed revelation, and daily news came out of the massive campaign of spying on individuals about whom some public curiosity or celebrity interest existed, all covered up for years by executive lies, massive bribes to quieten victims and even to get the police to ignore their duty – the last straw – was an ordinary family, whose daughter had been abducted and murdered, who were led to hope she was still alive by a News of the World journalist who wiped out messages on her mobile telephone in order to hear new ones, as the message-taker was full. So can a small careless event bring about a major historical one!

Great credit must go the The Guardian, one of the last left-leaning independent newspapers, although the right-leaning Daily Telegraph also deserves credit for recent disclosures. If Murdoch had his will there would be no independent press, and for years he has tried to sabotage the BBC, one of the few independent and non-party-political broadcasting systems in the world, that often stands in his way towards total mind-and-opinion control over the popular masses. Murdoch is an international menace who has every country where he operates afraid of him. In America he owns The Wall Street Journal and the noxious Fox News as well as a big holding in Sky News, where recent revelations have forced him to back out from acquiring the rest.

Now he is getting into trouble in the U.S. as well and if events keep going against him there he may acquire massive fines and even see his empire finally collapse. His son and some of his executives, who have been denying ‘wrong doing’, which has become another word for obvious guilt, are in the dock as well, so coming events will be breath-taking to watch as the camel’s back crashes to the ground.